Good year for Croatia's car importers.
In 2016, 44,106 new passenger cars were sold in Croatia, which is 23.4 percent more than in the previous year, when 35,715 new cars were sold. In December, sales increased by almost 65 percent, according to a survey conducted by Promocija Plus agency. Just in December, 3,475 new vehicles were sold, which is an increase of 64.8 percent compared to the same month of 2015, when just 2,108 cars were sold, reports Jutarnji List on January 5, 2017.
The largest number of customers decided to buy one of Volkswagen models, with 6,445 VW cars in total being sold. Opel was the second best-selling producer with 4,135 cars sold, followed by Renault with 3,715 cars sold, Škoda (3,567) and Ford (2,822).
Among German premium car producers popular in Croatia, the first place belonged to Audi with 1,567 cars sold, followed by BMW (1,312) and Mercedes (1,308). In addition, 45 Porsches were sold.
The best-selling model last year was VW Golf, which 2,241 cars sold. It was followed by Renault Clio (1,734), Škoda Octavia (1,706), Opel Astra (1,569), Ford Focus (1,533), and Suzuki Vitara (1,520).
Cars with petrol engines last year had a share in total sales of 40.7 percent, with 17,948 vehicles sold. Cars with diesel engines had a share of 57.4 percent with 25,323 vehicles sold. Only 48 electric cars were sold in Croatia last year, with a share of just 0.1 percent. However, there were also 332 hybrid cars sold, or 0.8 percent, and 455 cars with gas engines.
Looking just at December, VW sold most vehicles (713), followed by Hyundai with 330 new cars sold, while Renault was third with 278 cars sold.
Among individual car models, in December there were 280 VW Polos sold, the second was VW Golf with 207 cars, and the third best-selling model was Hyundai Tucson with 180 cars sold, according to data published by Promocija Plus agency.
It is likely that the substantial increase in the number of cars sold in December was a consequence of changes to excise duties on cars, which came into force on 1 January 2017 and which will have substantial impact on prices of both new and imported cars.
